The first item to know if a property has a title.........

The first item to know if a property has a title, who owns the title and what type of property it is. The Registro Nacional keeps the records on titled property.

Real property has a finca number. Finca means farm in English but does not mean a country farm with chickens. The term means a section of real property. Even houses on lots in the city are parts of fincas. Finca numbers or farm numbers have two basic parts. The first digit defines the district in which the property is located. The last six digits is a unique identification number. For example a finca number (or lot number) in San José would look something like this: 1-000000. The one is for San José, and the zeros would be a real number identifying the property.

Property District Numbers:
1 – San José
2 – Alajuela
3 – Cartago
4 – Heredia
5 – Guanacaste
6 – Puntarenas
7 – Limón

Property Types
F – Filial
M – Mother
Z – Concession

Farms can also be further broken down into undivided interests. In these cases, an additional three-digit number is added to indicate the number of owners.